


Birthday cake

by kaige68



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Baking, Community: 1_million_words, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-03
Updated: 2013-03-03
Packaged: 2017-12-04 07:55:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/708352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaige68/pseuds/kaige68
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt from <a href="http://thtwzjustadream.livejournal.com/profile"><img class="i-ljuser-userhead"/></a><a class="i-ljuser-username" href="http://thtwzjustadream.livejournal.com/"></a><b>thtwzjustadream</b>, <em>So this is what happens to your kitchen when your lug of a boyfriend and your baby girl try to make you a birthday cake. From scratch. </em></p>
            </blockquote>





	Birthday cake

**Author's Note:**

> Reward drabble for [](http://thtwzjustadream.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://thtwzjustadream.livejournal.com/)**thtwzjustadream**. Apparently I can write a 5 things drabble in 100 words, but birthday cake gets away from me.

“Alright! Which one of you is Betty Crocker, and which one is Duncan Hines?” Danny looked at the two people he loved the most in the world, both in filthy aprons and looking like war refugees for their efforts in the kitchen.

“You’re not supposed to be home yet!” Steve checked his watch. “Damn, you were supposed to be home a half hour ago, and I didn’t call you.”

“We were trying to surprise you with a birthday cake.” Danny walked forward and hugged his daughter after the sad face he got with the sentence. She clung to him and transferred some of the goo from the adventure to his clothes. _What the hell?_ He thought and reached up to give Steve a brief kiss too.

“What were you making?” He surveyed the room again, amazed that Steve had let it get to such a state.

“Pineapple Upside-Down Cake. But no matter how thick we made the dough, the pineapples keep sinking.” Steve looked perplexed as he poked at a cake pan full of not-quite-liquid.

“Dough? It keeps sinking into the _dough_?” Grace nodded solemnly at her father’s question. “Okay, let’s do this. You.” He pointed at Steve. “clean off the stove. And you,” The finger went toward Grace. “Take the aprons out back and shake some of the _dough_ off.” When she was outside, Danny rounded on Steve again. “Are you kidding me?” He whispered. “We are starting over, neither of you are eating this toxic mess. Now where is the sugar?”

Steve apologized with his eyes and handed over a clear canister full of fine white stuff.

“This is powdered sugar! You were making pineapple upside-down cake with powdered sugar? Did you even have a recipe? Just clean out a pan.” He tacked on, not giving Steve any input.

Danny closed the canister and put it away, pulling out the container of light brown sugar, and a box of cake mix he had hidden for just such an occasion. He set up on the small corner of a counter that they cleaned for him as the scrambled around him.

Clean and dried, Danny put the pan directly on top of a burner, asked Grace for some butter. “The idea, is that when you turn the cake upside-down the pineapple is on top. It doesn’t sink if it starts at the bottom.” He grabbed eggs, cherries, a store cut container of pineapple. “Everything else can be put away. I need a clean bowl and measuring cup.” The birthday minions sprang to.

Once they were ready, and his audience was paying attention, Danny turned the heat on under the cake pan. He handed Steve the cake mix, “This is your mission.” He pointed at the directions. “Where it says to add water, take what we have of pineapple juice first and water for the rest. Do not _thicken_ anything.”

Grace smirked from the step stool next to the stove. “You, Monkey, very carefully cut some of those marichinos in half. No stems. Then watch me and learn, because your grandmother will be very upset if you don’t know how to make her famous cake.”

He melted the butter in the pan, and Steve watched avidly. Unmeasured brown sugar was added, stirred, and heated until Danny thought it looked good, and then the stove was turned off. Pineapple slices were strategically placed on top of the sugar, rearranging until they all liked the pattern, and then they were carefully pushed down into the buttery goo. The cherries were given the same treatment.

“That’s right, from very close to the pan, pour in the batter. See?” Steve stopped pouring before he filled the pan completely, about a quarter inch from the edge. “Exactly,” Danny said rather proudly. “Room to grow. Now an adult with pot-holders puts it in the oven, and the beautiful assistant sets the timer.”

Grace set the cartoon egg on the counter. “We were going to make dinner too.” She looked to Steve, hoping he would save the day rather than her father on his own birthday.

“We’ll call for delivery.” Steve nodded emphatically. “We can clean while we wait.” He turned Danny toward the living room and gave him a push. “Go take a load off on your birthday.”

A few hours later, after pizza without fruit and cake with it, Grace had been tucked in and Steve manhandled Danny until they were stretched out on the couch together. He kissed the birthday-boy, long and hard. Danny tasted like dessert. “I thought you didn’t like pineapple. I was surprised when Grace suggested it.”

“I like it on cake, not pizza. My mother used to make it for me every year.” He smiled up at Steve. “Thank you. That meant a lot.”

Steve smiled back. “Thank _you._ At least now you probably won’t have to make it yourself next year.”

“Yeah, that.” Danny smirked. “And you understand what upside-down means.”


End file.
